WPR16FA084 · Cessna 182A A
Cessna 182A A · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Alpine Airpark (46U) to Rigby Airport (U56)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR16FA084
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 182A A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N2230G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alpine Airpark (46U), Alpine, WYTo Rigby Airport (U56), Rigby, ID
- Aircraft age
- About 58 years (built 1958)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The noninstrument-rated, private pilot and three passengers were departing in dark night conditions with the moon below the horizon. The area along the flight route was unpopulated with few lights in the immediate vicinity. A handheld GPS unit found in the wreckage revealed that, shortly after becoming airborne, the airplane made a climbing 360° turn from about 20 to 425 ft above ground level (agl). The airplane then maintained a heading toward the destination for about 30 seconds, never climbing above about 550 ft agl. During the last seconds of the flight, the airplane made a descending right turn likely because the pilot experienced a loss of visual reference due to the dark night conditions. Ground scar analysis, impact signatures, and wreckage fragmentation patterns indicated that the airplane impacted terrain in a nose-low attitude, consistent with the airplane stalling before impact. A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of a mechanical malfunction or failure that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The noninstrument-rated pilot's failure to maintain airspeed during the initial climb in dark night conditions with no visual reference, which resulted in a stall and collision with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR16FA084
- Event ID
- 20160313X91203
- Case number
- WPR16FA084
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0c437284509f0f24c13cbfd6a5c627ee6cedcffc7c6eff3b241d0143965e5601; retrieved 2026-09-14T21:42:55.825Z.